


takes two to tango

by Shinkirou



Category: K (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Developing Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-14
Updated: 2015-10-14
Packaged: 2018-04-26 10:27:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5001196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shinkirou/pseuds/Shinkirou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So if your 'partner' is injured, of course you have to look out for them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	takes two to tango

Munakata falters.

It's near imperceptible, and he recovers almost instantly, but it seems it's just a moment too slow, somehow. 

He has no idea how Suoh even saw it, but the first a mere few inches from his face abruptly jolts to his right, leaving Munakata to move to his left to avoid Suoh crashing into him from the momentum, fist or no. 

His sword is still drawn when Suoh turns to face him, quite willing to act like he hadn't flinched, but Suoh's head is cocked curiously, one brow raised in question. "... You flinched."

Munakata mirrors that look right on back - Suoh has no real proof anyway, so why not make him doubt what he'd seen? Manipulative, yes, but it's either that or Suoh gains the knowledge that he might be able to actually, genuinely hurt Munakata right now. "I didn't. You averted your blow, though."

"That's because you flinched."

"When have I ever flinched in front of you?"

"Never. S'why I noticed it."

Munakata scoffs, deflecting, "What reason would I even have to flinch? You know I'm not scared of your powers, and my own aura would react even if you did come close to landing a hit."

Suoh looks lost in thought for a moment, but not particularly like he's listening to Munakata. Instead he just steps closer, but Munakata can tell he doesn't intend to harm him, so he just stands, wary, and watches Suoh approach, sword pointed at the ground between them. 

Suoh just bluntly states "... You're hurt."

Munakata gives him a disbelieving look and tries to ignore the pain shooting through his leg. "You haven't landed a hit on me yet today, how would I be injured?"

Suoh shakes his head, "Nah, not me. Someone else did - you were fighting the Colourless King yesterday, weren't you?"

Munakata's fairly sure he's caught at this point and that Suoh isn't going to let him out of this so easily... But that doesn't mean he wants to admit to an injury anyway. He doesn't need Suoh to think he can take advantage of it to seriously get to him, not that so far he seems inclined to do so... "I was, but I don't see what that has to do with it."

Suoh looks mildly annoyed, "You're hurt. He hurt you, obviously."

Munakata just rolls his eyes, "Alright, I admit I twitched a bit, but mistakes happen, you know. I simply misstepped slightly, it's not like I would have let you hit me."

Suoh shakes his head, "No, that wasn't an accident."

"Accidents do happen, Suoh --"

"Not to you, you're better than that."

Munakata blinks a bit, caught somewhat off-guard by that... Praise, then scowls gently, "I'm only human."

Suoh shakes his head, "You're a King."

Munakata rolls his eyes at Suoh's belligerence, "Still human. Even the best make mistakes sometimes."

Suoh's hand snaps forward and grabs his wrist, tugging him forward.

Munakata winces as the jarring movement forces his leg to brace unexpectedly, taking more weight than he's been putting on it all day. His other wrist flicks up to press his blade to Suoh's throat before he raises his gaze again, expression cold. "... Let go."

Suoh's head is tilting back slightly at the cool press of exceptionally sharp metal just nicking his throat, but his gaze is still fairly bland. He drops Munakata's wrist without any further issue, even stepping back to put some distance between them. Munakata lowers his sword again, though he doesn't sheath it.

Now it's Suoh's turn to scoff. "'Accident' my ass. No wonder you were holdin' back on me."

Munakata blinks, allowing some small degree of annoyed surprise to flit across his features for a moment. "... So you made me agitate the wound just because you're mad that I wasn't fighting you all out?"

Suoh looks annoyed right on back at him, "Made you agitate it because you were lying."

Munakata rolls his eyes at that, shifting the weight off his leg again. No point in pretending, any more. "Right, because I was going to admit to someone I was fighting not thirty seconds prior that I'm injured. Just how foolish do you imagine I am?"

Suoh's expression gets a little weird, like he's surprised but also maybe... Disappointed, or something, but also like he's trying to hide it. "Dumber than I thought, if that's your reasoning."

Munakata scowls slightly, but asks all the same, "What makes you say that?"

Suoh shakes his head, but does answer all the same, "Wouldn't fight you when you're already injured."

That makes the scowl fade from Munakata's face, but only to be replaced by mild confusion again. "Why not?" Then the scowl comes back slightly, "You'd rather only fight me when I won't hold back?" But why wouldn't he press the advantage?

Suoh tilts his head, shrugging, "Kinda... S'boring if you can't fight back, but I'm also not actually tryin' to kill you, or even hurt you... Too much."

Munakata averts his eyes slightly - well, he knows that, but hearing it said out loud like that... He sighs and finally sheathes his sword. "Fine, then we're done for today it seems." He still doesn't want to be the first to turn to leave, because while he does trust Suoh not to attack him again right now, he still doesn't want to seem like he's running away, either. A bit childish, perhaps, but then again they're both petulantly stubborn sometimes. 

Suoh steps closer, instead, though. "Done fighting, yeah."

Munakata blinks at him, not quite understanding what he means by that. "As opposed to?"

Suoh grins, doubling over, and just as Munakata's realizing why, it's already too late -- Suoh's shoulder presses to his stomach and he finds himself being folded over Suoh's shoulder, a hand coming up to pin his legs. Probably not only so he doesn't hurt himself, but also so he doesn't kick Suoh in the face or something. Doesn't mean he won't still try, though. "Suoh Mikoto! Put me down this instant!"

"Relax, Munakata, I'll let you go soon enough. Just know how stubborn you are." His free arm reaches up and holds Munakata's lower back relatively still, making Munakata grumble at him.

"You're going to make me drop my glasses..." He's got one hand on them now as it is to keep them on his face. "And you're lucky my sword's sheath locks."

Suoh huffs at him, "Stop grumbling and hold on."

"To _what_ , exact-- ah, Suoh!" His question is interrupted by Suoh jumping without any further warning, leaving Munakata's free arm scrambling to hook around Suoh's waist and cling tight as they fly through the air. "If you drop me I swear I will stab you."

He can't see Suoh's expression, but he's quite sure it's a shit-eating grin by now. In fact, Munakata can practically hear it when Suoh replies, "Really, I'm not gonna drop you. Unless you keep complaining, maybe." 

Munakata knows it's an empty threat, but he kicks his leg as best he can under Suoh's hand, feigning kicking him in the face. With his uninjured leg, of course. "At least tell me where we're going, then."

"You won't like the answer to that."

Munakata's squirming intensifies. "I'm not going to the bar, Suoh."

Suoh's grip tightens in response, "Just long enough to lemme look at your leg." There's that note of concern again, this time less subtle. Munakata still doesn't want to... But he sighs and stops fidgeting. 

"... Fine, if that's what it takes to get you off my case."

Suoh's hand pats his lower back. "There you go, was that so hard?"

"Don't push your luck."

Suoh scoffs, amused, but falls quiet, only finally setting Munakata back down - carefully - once they're at the bar. Of course they beat everyone else back, so Suoh just unlocks the front door and heads right in, locking it up behind him. Munakata's a few paces into the bar when Suoh's hand catches him by the coat and pulls him closer, thankfully on his good leg. "Suoh?"

"Here." He moves around to stand on Munakata's bad side, then tugs Munakata's arm up over his shoulders. Munakata immediately groans.

"Suoh, it's not that bad, really..."

Suoh ignores him, as per usual, and merely hooks his arm around Munakata's waist. It's at least better than being carried, so Munakata just silently relents and walks up the stairs to Suoh's bedroom with him. Suoh leads him over to the bed and helps him sit on the edge, setting Munakata's sword onto the bed, then goes back out into the hall for a minute... But not before giving Munakata a light warning, "Don't move. If you try to leave, I can catch you right now."

That may or may not be true, but Munakata figures it's probably better not to test his luck regardless. "Yes, yes..." He shifts further back onto Suoh's bed, figuring he may as well get comfortable while he's waiting, but it doesn't take too long before Suoh's back with a first-aid kit. "... Do you even know what you're doing?"

Suoh gives him an unamused look, not bothering to verbally respond. Munakata decides that it's probably fine; he can stop Suoh and take over, himself, if Suoh messes up. He allows Suoh to lift his leg to remove his boot - he hated to come up the stairs with his shoes on, but he obviously hadn't wanted to leave them downstairs and it's a bar on the first floor anyway, so it's fine. Getting the boot off makes him cringe just a little, but he doesn't comment, and Suoh doesn't do more than shoot him a look.

Suoh sets the boot next to the bed, then lifts Munakata's socked foot and pushes it back towards his leg abruptly, but not hard enough that it would normally hurt. Still, it's enough to make Munakata jolt. _That_ hurt! He glares at Suoh, "Was that really necessary?"

Suoh looks up at him, scowling, "You were really downplaying it a lot. You probably broke something."

Munakata hisses at him in response, "And if I hadn't, you just did, thanks. I'll take care of it myself, so just let go already."

Suoh shakes his head, but does set Munakata's foot gently back on the bed. "I'll be more careful. If you wanna tell me if there's anything else that bad, though, now'd be the time..."

Reluctantly, Munakata sighs. "... It's already bandaged."

Suoh raises a brow and pushes Munakata's pant leg up, seeing the bandages not too far up. But Munakata's pants won't push that far since they're not that loose, and Suoh looks up at his face again. "Take 'em off."

Munakata tilts his head. "The bandages? They could probably--"

"No, your pants."

"... Really, I can redo the bandaging myself." If there's one place he doesn't want to be caught without half his uniform, it's Suoh's room in Bar Homra. Unsurprisingly, though, Suoh shakes his head.

"Nope. Off with 'em."

Munakata sighs, knowing the longer they bicker about this, the more likely the rest of the Homra members are to get back. Reluctantly he sits up and undoes his belt, shoves his pants down to the point where he can free his injured leg, then pulls them back up the other leg and lets the loose fabric pool in his lap. It's definitely strange, but Suoh's not paying any attention to his actions anyway, too busy scowling deeply at the slightly bloody bandages wrapped around Munakata's leg.

"... I _was_ going to say they could probably use changing." The bandages, that is. Suoh glares up at him.

"Idiot."

"It's not as bad as it looks. It didn't hit bone." And there's not even that much blood, all things considered. It hadn't bled for very long, but it had been a large wound, hence the wrapping rather than just a normal bandaid. "Really, go ahead and unwrap them, see for yourself."

Suoh looks back down to them and starts doing just that, carefully removing the clasps and unwrapping the bandage slowly. He does seem to relax as the wound is revealed - as Munakata said, it's not terribly deep and is thankfully more on the back of his leg, well away from the bone. But it's definitely wide, hence the pain in each step as the skin stretches further from it.

"See? It's not deep enough to warrant stitches, and it's not the bone so a splint won't help either. I was taking care of it."

Suoh gives him another suspicious look, but he sighs in acceptance after a moment. "Guesso. At least until you let me fight you, anyway. Here." He pulls a bottle of painkillers out of the kit, which Munakata takes but doesn't open. "... Don't be stubborn, Munakata."

"I'm not. Since Kings have to take more than normal humans, I'm waiting for a glass of water." 

Suoh rolls his eyes but gets up obediently, "Fine. Be right back." 

As if Munakata's going anywhere. He lays back against Suoh's pillows a bit more, though he knows he shouldn't get too comfortable; the minute Suoh's done re-wrapping his leg, Munakata's going to go back to his own clansmen. He can only hope to get out of here before the rest of Homra comes back, but he doesn't really think his luck is that good. At the very least, hopefully nobody will come barging in here. _That_ would be interesting to explain...

Suoh returns shortly, pulling Munakata from his thoughts and offering him the glass of water. "There."

"Thank you." Even though he doesn't want to be here at all, he still has manners. Suoh gives him a vague grunt of acknowledgment, and Munakata opens the painkiller bottle and pours enough to make a normal human seriously ill into his hand. He takes a few at a time and swallows them without complaint, then re-caps the bottle and hands it back to Suoh.

Suoh takes it and sets it back in the kit, then takes the cup from him. He also pulls out a facecloth, and Munakata scowls preemptively when he sees that it's wet. That's... Going to be touching the wound, isn't it? Lovely. It might not be terribly deep, but it _is_ a raw wound, so that's going to sting... He watches as Suoh swipes it through some antiseptic cream, then meets his gaze as Suoh looks up at him. "This'll probably sting."

Munakata nods. No point in pretending otherwise. "Undoubtedly. I'll be fine though, go ahead."

Suoh gives him a sort of 'are you sure' look, but when Munakata nods, he just shrugs and presses the cloth as carefully as he can manage to the wound. As expected, Munakata's breath hisses between his teeth quietly as he does absolutely everything in his power not to tense up... Or, rather, to relax back down as quickly as he can. Not tensing at all is impossible when something is pressed against an open wound. Still, he does his best to concentrate on anything except the sting of that, and settling mentally on Suoh's other hand instead. Suoh's grip is firm and warm near the bridge of his foot, and his thumb is stroking absently down by Munakata's ankle.

It's strangely soothing, so Munakata does his best to focus on that feeling rather than the stinging pain, and soon enough Suoh's pulling the now-slightly bloody cloth away. "Sorry about that."

Munakata shakes his head. "No, it was necessary. Thank you."

At least the painful part is over now. Suoh carefully presses a thin cotton pad over the wound and quickly uses a new roll of bandage to secure it in place. Once it's clipped securely, Suoh leans forward and presses a seemingly-thoughtless kiss to Munakata's knee. It doesn't hurt, of course, but Munakata twitches all the same. 

Suoh doesn't seem phased by it though, because he pulls back just as lazily and looks up at Munakata. "There you go."

Munakata raises a brow at him. "And that kiss...?"

Suoh shrugs. "Totsuka says it helps things get better faster."

"... I see." Munakata figures it's not worth commenting past that and instead just shifts to pull his pants onto that leg again, and carefully up over the bandages. Thankfully the fabric isn't too tight that far down, so the bandage has a little room to move. It won't help make walking any more comfortable, but at least with the proper medical care it should heal up soon enough. "Well, thank you, then." 

Suoh nods and moves out of his way while he carefully gets his boot back on, but then right as he goes to stand again, Suoh startles him by pushing at the back of his knees. He's half expecting to hit the bed, and about to tell Suoh off, but instead he finds himself caught in Suoh's arms. Standing.

"... You intend on carrying me back to Scepter4, don't you." His tone remains flat because that's a question he already knows the answer to. Suoh nods anyway.

"Yup. Figured you'd fuss less this way, _Princess_."

Because indeed, Munakata is being held princess-style, Suoh having one arm under his knees and the other on his back. Munakata could complain... But instead he just sighs and shifts to sit up further to make it easier on both of them. "... At least let me grab my sword."

Suoh turns him to face the bed and Munakata leans out for a moment to indeed grab his sword, clipping it onto his belt securely. Once he's settled again, he reaches up to wrap his arms around Suoh's neck just to help keep himself steady. Suoh, wisely, doesn't comment on it. "You good?"

Munakata nods, and then they're off up to the roof to start on their way. Homra's van isn't back yet... But Munakata knows it can't be far, so he clings to Suoh a little tighter. As if that would really hide him if someone were to look up... Thankfully Suoh seems aware that haste would be prudent, because he only pauses to make sure Munakata's really secure before they're off again.

This position is a lot comfier, even if it's sort of awkward... At least this way Munakata can keep his leg comfortably stretched - not completely straight, but not all bent up, either, and honestly, being pressed into Suoh's neck isn't _that_ awful. Though he does turn his gaze out over the city for most of the 'ride', just watching as they bound past cars and pedestrians alike, bouncing rooftop to rooftop. 

The breeze is nice, and he finds himself relaxing against Suoh's chest absentmindedly.

When they reach the back gates of Scepter4, it's almost a shame. Munakata shakes that feeling off quickly, though, and carefully allows Suoh to set him down. Suoh doesn't immediately take off again, which is good, because Munakata turns to face him again. Almost grudgingly, he speaks up, "... Thank you, Suoh." He didn't want to admit it hurt... But it's better that he got it looked after.

Suoh shrugs. "You're welcome." Then he surprises Munakata once more, leaning in to kiss him on the forehead. "Get better soon."

Munakata just gives him a confused look for the kiss, "That one was nowhere near the wound, you know..."

Suoh grins. "Oh? Hm, I thought you must be an idiot if you did something like that, and the Munakata I know is smart as hell."

Munakata scowls at him for that, opening his mouth to protest, only to find Suoh's lips on his own this time, silencing him. It's not unpleasant, for as much as it was unexpected, and Munakata finds himself tilting his head into it juuust a little. 

Suoh pulls away sooner than Munakata might have liked, but he doesn't complain. "Alright, alright, get back to that clan of yours."

Munakata nods and steps carefully back, turning to unlock the gate, and only once it's shutting behind him and between them does Suoh speak up again, "Call me whenever you're feeling better. Wouldn't wanna miss out on dancing with you again."

Munakata turns his head to look back at Suoh, caught off guard by the words, but he only chuckles as the gate shuts between them. "Mm, I'm looking forward to it." 

Suoh takes a step back, but of course he can't resist throwing in one more comment, "And thanks for letting me know you enjoy being kissed. I'll make use of that."

Before Munakata can reply, Suoh's already turned on his heel and sprung off back in the direction of the bar. Well, whatever.

In the end, if Suoh follows through on that, well, it wouldn't be that bad at all.


End file.
